Amul to invest Rs 3,000 crore over four years on expansion

The cooperative is setting up new plants in Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat and West Bengal as well as raising the capacity in existing plants.NEW DELHI: Dairy major GCMMF, which markets milk and dairy products under Amul brand, will invest Rs 3,000 crore over the next four years on its expansion plans.

The cooperative is also planning to enter states like Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, Kerala and North-East to expand business, its managing director R S Sodhi said.

"In dairy sector, if you have to grow then you have to increase milk handling capacity. We are increasing our milk processing capacity to 320 lakh litre per day from the current 280 lakh litre per day. We target to increase this capacity to 360 lakh litres per day by 2020," Sodhi told reporters here.

The cooperative is setting up new plants in Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat and West Bengal as well as raising the capacity in existing plants, he added.

Asked about the investment, Sodhi said: "We are investing Rs 600-800 crore every year. We will invest about Rs 3,000 crore by 2020 on expansion."

GCMMF achieved a turnover of Rs 23,005 crore in 2015-16 and aiming to reach Rs 50,000 crore by 2020.

Elaborating on expansion, Sodhi said the new plants in Kanpur and Lucknow are expected to be operational in next two months. A cheese plant in Gujarat will start operation soon.

The cooperative is also setting up new plants in Mumbai and Kolkata.

"We are entering Assam market through third party manufacturing. We have plans to enter Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha and Kerala markets soon," Sodhi said.

On new products, he said the cooperative will soon launch sweet 'Rasmalai' with a shelf life of one year.

GCMMF has about 60 processing plants, of which 40 are in Gujarat.

The cooperative's milk procurement for 2015-16 increased to 186 lakh litres per day as against 148.50 lakh litres in the previous fiscal.